KUALA LUMPUR − The Football Association of Malaysia’s (FAM) new technical director Scott O’Donell has suggested that a foreign coach be appointed to lead the Harimau Malaya squad.
O’Donell, 54, who just began his three-year contract with FAM yesterday, considered the move necessary for the benefit of Malaysian football in the long term.
“I see that the Harimau Malaya squad needs to be coached by a foreign coach after this, to change the landscape and future of Malaysian football to a new dimension, not just for the short term but (for) the long term,” he said in a statement issued by FAM.
FAM is expected to discuss the matter soon with national Under-22 squad head coach Brad Maloney and Bojan Hodak, who helped Kuala Lumpur (KL) City FC win the 2021 Malaysia Cup, both linked to the post.
It follows Tan Cheng Hoe’s resignation as head coach of the national team on Monday − in taking responsibility for the failure of the national squad to advance to the semi-finals of the AFF 2020 Cup last month.
Meanwhile, O’Donell said he wished to continue with and further enhance FAM’s F:30 roadmap, which was launched on 31 October 2018.
“F:30 is the strategic plan for 2019 to 2030 but the Covid-19 pandemic has affected this planning. This roadmap is indeed a good plan but it can be further developed from time to time based on suitability.
“It is not necessarily (to) just focus on what we want to achieve in terms of developing national football, which is to have a high-profile national team, but it also covers development at the grassroots and youth levels, coaching education, women’s football, futsal and beach soccer, as all of that is important, too,” said O’Donell.
The Australian has had extensive experience and has played a role as FIFA coach/expert/mentor since 2009 with a main focus on youth and coach development.
The former athlete, who played as a defender for Kuala Lumpur in 1994-1995, has also served as the coach of Geylang United (2003-2005) in Singapore, the head coach of the Cambodian national squad twice − from 2005-2007 and 2009-2010 − before becoming technical director of The All India Football Federation from 2015-2017. – Bernama, January 6, 2022
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